Electronic and opto-electronic devices usually consume power which leads to an increase in temperature which affects the ability of the device to function in an optimum manner and shortens the life of the device. Active electronic devices are particularly susceptible to retaining substantial heat energy, but passive electronic devices can also be victim to this where the device absorbs heat energy from nearby heat sources or emissive devices.
In the field of optical electronic packages, it is known to utilise various types of cooling (or drawing heat energy away from the device) For example, laser diodes are often housed within so-called “Transistor Outline (TO)-Cans”, which are metallic, generally cylindrically-shaped housings. The laser diode is typically mounted on an electrically insulating, thermally conductive device carrier, which is mounted on a heatsink pillar attached to the “lid” of the housing, providing a conductive path for thermal energy. The “lid”, which is usually known as a “header”, or a “CD header”, is thermally coupled to the heatsink pillar. The heatsink pillar conducts thermal energy into the header of the housing which, in turn, dissipates the thermal energy away. Often, an electrical ground pin (or case pin) is attached to the header on the opposite side of the header to the heatsink pillar. Some of the thermal energy can then pass straight through the header to the ground pin, from which it can then be conducted away. However, the conduction of the thermal energy through the heatsink pillar to the ground pin via the header is not very efficient, and neither is the conduction of the thermal energy through the ground pin. Cooling can be especially poor when the TO-can is enclosed within a module together with a printed circuit board (PCB) which may have other heat-radiating devices mounted thereon.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic or opto-electronic package which overcomes, or at least reduces the disadvantages of the known devices described above.